28%: Share of consumers earning more than $200,000 who live paycheck to paycheck
59%: Share of paycheck-to-paycheck consumers with issues paying their monthly bills that noted significant rises in prices for utilities in the past 12 months
48%: Share of consumers living paycheck to paycheck with issues paying bills who pay for health insurance
“Being a money lender is like being a genie, except instead of three wishes, I give people the power to buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have.” TheBusinessOflending.com
45% of individuals earning more than $100,000 per year lived paycheck to paycheck.
56% of USA consumers don’t have access to $400 when faced with a sudden emergency!
Demand for credit continues unabated! [Other than housing because potential home sellers don’t want to give up their <3% mortgage interest rates!]
“As a money lender, I get to say the two words every person wants to hear: ‘approved’ and ‘money’ (and maybe ‘free pizza’).” PaydayLoanUniversity.com
The Study also highlights that individuals in the lower range of the upper-income bracket are particularly at risk of facing paycheck-to-paycheck living. A staggering 54% of consumers earning between $100,000 and $150,000 annually, more than double the median personal income in the U.S., are living paycheck to paycheck. This figure represents a 7 percentage-point increase from July 2022.
The Study’s results indicate that many Americans struggle to make ends meet despite high salaries. Several factors, such as rising inflation, increasing living costs, mounting debt, and a lack of financial planning, contribute to this.
The post-COVID-19 pandemic era has significantly impacted people’s finances, causing them to shift their spending and savings habits. Many consumers strongly desire to break free from the feeling of being confined during the pandemic, both physically and financially.
The Bottom Line?
Access to small-dollar loans is crucial for millions of households across the country.
For many families, unexpected expenses or emergencies can quickly derail their finances, leaving them with few options.
Traditional banks and lending institutions often require lengthy application processes, high credit scores, and collateral, making it difficult or even impossible for those needing the money they require.
On the other hand, small-dollar loans offer a viable alternative for those struggling to make ends meet.
With easy and accessible application processes, lower credit score requirements, and more flexible repayment terms, small-dollar loans provide a lifeline for households needing financial assistance.
We can help millions of families manage unexpected expenses and navigate challenging times by providing access to small-dollar loans.
Here it is! Our newly updated 500+ page Manual. We thoroughly explain step-by-step how to start & operate a profitable consumer loan business.
If you doubt our “Bottom Line,” here’s a link to a Study and commentary by Ballard Spahr about the impact of the passage of a 36% APR cap in Illinois:Click to Access
Starting a car title loan business can be a great way to make money and be of service. By ensuring you have everything in place and are prepared for the challenges of owning such a small business, you’ll be able to get off on the right foot and make sure your new venture succeeds!
Research the industry.
You can start learning about the industry by reading books, magazines, and articles on car title loans. Most importantly, GET A CAR TITLE LOAN! Also, talk to people in the industry, especially existing car title lenders. Even if you’re planning an online auto title loan business, if possible, visit stores offering title loans, Take photos of the various state disclosures, licenses, and fee breakdowns typically posted in every car title loan storefront location. You can find this info on websites as well. [And, of course, https://thebusinessoflending.com/297-00/, in our 500+ page PDF Manual.]
To learn more about your competition, you should look at their websites and see how they market themselves. You can also get information from Google Adwords or Bing Ads that will provide you with data about keywords related to your business. You can use this information for keyword research to optimize your website and make sure that it ranks well on search engine result pages (SERPs).
You should also educate yourself about your customers so that you know what their needs are going into the business. This will help ensure you can fulfill these needs when providing services such as funding car title loans and other related products or services like title transfers.
Set your goals.
Before you start your car title loan business, it’s important to set goals. You can’t know whether or not you are achieving your business goals unless you have a clear idea. In the title loan industry, we refer to these as KPIs. [Key Performance Indicators]
There are two things wrong with setting goals before starting a car title loan business:
Some people think that it is not necessary because the goal will remain the same throughout their career in this field, and this makes them miss out on opportunities that could have benefited them greatly. This is true only if their goal was “be successful,” which leaves room for interpretation by each individual as long as they were able to achieve success as defined by them.
Other people get so caught up trying to achieve other people’s goals. They forget about their unique talents, strengths, and weaknesses which may make all the difference between success and failure when starting up something new like opening up an auto title loan company!
Know the laws.
There are several different laws that, if not followed, could result in serious penalties. For example, when it comes to how much money you can charge or how quickly your borrower must pay back your loan, each state has its own specific rules. It’s important to know these laws and whether they apply to your business, and how they would affect its operations.
Make sure you fully understand the regulations regarding licensing requirements for title loan businesses in your area and state before starting one yourself. There are rarely zero laws where you operate! That’s true for online and storefront auto title loan businesses. Research what other states have done regarding title loan legislation and mimic something similar for yourself (i.e., don’t just copy from another state’s code). If licensing requirements exist but aren’t enforced, then contact officials so they can start enforcing them! After all, YOU paid for your state license, bond…
For example, Texas requires title loan lenders to act as Credit Access Businesses – CABs. It’s crazy, but lenders cannot loan their own money! They must collaborate with a “3rd Party Lender.” [PS: Our Manual, “How to Loan Money to the Masses,” covers this thoroughly!] Know too that some Texas cities have passed city ordinances. You can’t legally offer car title loans in these cities. Solution? Offer car title loans online or set up your storefront in the county. [Again, our Manual covers how to operate in Texas & every other state in which this loan product is legal. ] Conversely, California passed a <36% APR cap on title loans! Every state is different. [If this were easy, everyone would do it 🙂 ]
Develop a plan.
As you begin your car title loan business, it’s important to develop a comprehensive plan. A well-thought-out plan will help you avoid mistakes and ensure that you are on the right path toward success.
Here are the critical components of your plan:
Loan product
Target market
Competition
Strengths/weaknesses compared to the competition
Financial situation (i.e., how much capital do I have?)
Risk tolerance (I can tolerate risk if it means I’ll be more successful in five years)
Exit strategy(s)
Check out our “Pro Forma Modeling Excel Tool” here: Pro Forma
Choose your location.
The online car title loan model is kicking butt today. Tremendous new tech platforms and GPS devices are revolutionizing our industry. Instant bank verification, same-day funding, AI-powered collection tools, loan management software, and income validation platforms… make lending money online enticing and easier than ever before.
Choosing a physical location for your car title loan business is one of the most important decisions you can make. You want to ensure that your location is accessible to customers and near a busy street or large parking lot. You also want to choose a safe area where there’s not much crime and an area in which many people live, work, and drive around.
The best locations are those with large populations. They have plenty of potential customers who need money fast because they are short on cash after paying their monthly bills, need car repairs, gas to get to work, rent…
Work up a budget.
Before you begin the process of opening your own car title loan business, it’s important to create a budget. This will help you determine how much money you need to invest in your business and how much profit you can expect. To create a good budget for your car title loan business:
List all expenses that are related to running your car title loan business. Don’t forget to include costs associated with equipment, software, supplies, marketing expenses, employee salaries, and training costs, insurance coverage (if any), state regulations on how much interest rates must be charged on loans—and anything else that may come up during the course of owning a successful auto title lender!
Calculate how much money each month will be spent going forward based on these estimates for operating expenses. Once this number is determined, it should be compared against projected revenue from loans made over time so that there’s an accurate picture of what may happen during different stages of startup operation as well as future growth plans if needed or desired later down the road when demand begins increasing dramatically due to word-of-mouth advertising strategies being implemented effectively not only locally but regionally and online as well. [Again, our “Pro Forma Modeling Excel Tool” is perfect for this!]
Marketing.
Marketing is a key component of running a successful title loan business, but it’s often overlooked. Instead, businesses believe that once they have the product or service ready, all they need to do is advertise, and customers will come. That might be true for some businesses—but for others, like car title loans where people are putting up their cars as collateral and can’t afford any payment defaults or late payments, there needs to be more than just advertising. You also need to build trust with your clients so that when you tell them about your plan to help them get out from under their financial burden and pay back the loan, they believe in what you’re saying and follow through on it.
There are many ways that marketing can be done—from advertising on radio stations with commercials at the beginning of each hour (or whatever time interval) promoting your business; having billboards placed strategically throughout town; posting flyers at local grocery stores and libraries; sending direct mailings via snail mail and emailing, customer referral rewards… There are countless ways to market depending on what business model fits best into yours (i.e., traditional brick-and-mortar store vs. online eCommerce).
To run a successful car title loan business, you must know all its aspects.
To run a successful car title loan business, you must know all its workings. You need to know the laws and regulations that apply to your business. You should know how to develop a plan for starting up and running your car title loan business. You also need to have knowledge of the latest technology for car title loan lenders and acquire car title loan customers by using social media marketing techniques like GMB [Google My Business], Facebook ads, and Google Adwords. [NOTE: several social media platforms do not allow subprime lending ads for loan products that exceed 36% caps! Workarounds exist, and we discuss them in our 500+ page Manual, “How to Start & Improve a Consumer Loan Business.] You must understand how things work so that you can underwrite car title loans effectively with minimal risk of your time and capital.
PS: We have a LONG LIST of resources focused on “lending to the masses” here: Resources
Conclusion
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t be shy about taking advice from others. You may have a lot of business knowledge already, but remember that there are always new things to learn—and other people who can teach you. Don’t let your pride stand in the way of this opportunity for growth!
Finally, INVEST IN YOURSELF! And always be learning!
“As the job market cools down and inflation heats up, a new survey from Bankrate indicates that side hustles are a necessity for a growing number of Americans. Former top motivations for side hustling, like paying off debt and saving, have given way to a more pressing need: making ends meet.”
“Unfortunately, due to high inflation and other financial burdens, more side hustlers are working a side job just to make ends meet,” said Ted Rossman, Senior Industry Analyst for Bankrate. “Instead of using this income to boost savings, knock out debt or pay for a vacation, there has been a big increase in people who simply need these funds just to pay for everyday living expenses.”
“41% of U.S. adults who have a side job in 2022 need the extra income to pay for everyday living expenses as compared to 31%in 2019 (the last year of polling), according to a new survey from Bankrate.com.Fewer are putting this money towards savings(17% vs. 24%in 2019) and using it for discretionary spending (26% vs. 36%in 2019).”
Bottom Line? The near-prime will soon be the subprime. Demand for loans is trending up and will continue to scale rapidly. Opportunities abound for Lenders!
ARE YOU EMPLOYING THE BEST-OF-BREED CUSTOMER ACQUISITION, UNDERWRITING, FUNDING… RESOURCES & PLATFORMS RAPIDLY ENTERING OUR INDUSTRY TODAY? DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN? LOOK NO FURTHER! YOUR ANSWERS ARE HERE: LENDER RESOURCES
Thanks for being a loyal email subscriber. I appreciate hearing from you. Let me know if you ever have any questions. And, you can click on the image to schedule a call!
Many national Lenders have been transitioning to a multitude of financial loan products in an effort to continue to serve subprime borrowers while still achieving superior ROI. Witness Avant, CURO, WRLD, ENVA… You only need to refer to their latest earnings call to comprehend the extent of this transition away from single-payment products. Enova’s progeny is CASHNETUSA.com back in the late ’90s. At the time, they offered singularly payday loans having 400% – 700% APR payday loans. As per their latest Q4 earnings call, these single payment [payday loan] products made up a mere 2% of loan originations. Obviously, they see the writing on the wall.
DO YOU?
Nevada, in addition to approximately 25 other States, has Implemented a state database. This demonstrates a death knell for the single payment product!
Luckily, we Lenders have time to evolve our Loan product offerings AND, more importantly, integrate with Fintech platforms that enable us to reduce headcount, and employ artificial intelligence [AI] to acquire, underwrite, service & collect funds without the aid of human intervention; thus reducing our G & A expenses. [Examples: IOUUmpire.com for 24/7/365 debt negotiation & IWVPro.com for wages & income verification.]
DO YOU WANT TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS?
Grab a copy of our latest version of “How to Lend Money to the Masses Profitably.” 500+ pages of real-world, how-to start, scale, improve and succeed lending cash to the 50%+ of USA households who are FAST running out of money and cannot access $500 cash in order to solve a sudden financial emergency. [Fix their car, keep the lights on, pay for a prescription, make payroll for their construction crew until paid by the homeowner…] For a mere $297.00, you can download our 500+ page PDF and enter/improve/scale a consumer loan business! The business of lending to the Masses. The oldest profession 🙂
Just a quick note. Debt buyers are in a state of frenzy. Payday, installment, car title… lenders are working their bad debt longer than normal. Why? Our subprime borrowers are sitting on a ton of cash. Our collection Team is experiencing more than usual success.
As a result, bad debt buyers are paying more for our bad debt!
If you do want to unload any bad paper you’ve been working in house, let me know. I’ll connect you direct.
Meanwhile, new loan originations continue to trend up. FOMO about omicron variant potential lockdowns, inflation, record low employment, record new business formations by sole-proprietors… continue.
December is OURS!
Jer
Jer@theBusinessOfLending.com
Jer – 702-208-6736 Cell
Jer@theBusinessOfLending.com
“FACT: Two-thirds of individuals who use both credit cards and payday loans have at least $1,000 of credit card liquidity left when taking out a payday loan.”
The term “Payday Loan” comes with more negative connotations than the term “carpetbagger” did after the Civil War. Our industry, “the business of lending to the masses” has evolved from old-school, analog face-to-face paper transactions, to digital customer transactions including acquisition, underwriting, funding, servicing, and collecting while reinventing the nomenclature from payday loans to installment loans, line-of-credit loans, early access to wages, buy-now-pay-later, pawn…
The bottom line? 50%+ of households are one paycheck away from being homeless.
This behavior – resorting to costly alternative loan products by consumers rather than maxing out their credit card – is puzzling because payday loans carry very high-interest rates [when erroneously computed as an Annual Percentage Rate. Much like choosing to take a cab/Uber from New York to Los Angeles], compared to 10 to 30 percent APR’s on credit cards.
This “mistake” is costly: these people could have saved $200+ annually by borrowing up to their credit card limits before taking out payday loans.
“This phenomenon has been termed the “Payday Loan Puzzle.”
Why do households take out expensive payday loans when they have far cheaper credit options available?
“Various behavioral explanations, such as self-control problems and financial illiteracy, have been put forward. In this paper, we propose a novel rational explanation for the payday loan puzzle, inspired by the following interview of an actual payday lender:
“Why are people taking out [payday] loans instead of using their credit cards?” Tim Ranney told me, “This guy was implying that these people weren’t smart enough to make the ‘right’ decision. I laughed in his face.‘They’re protecting the card! ’I told him. […]” Whereas failure to repay a payday loan won’t affect a consumer’s credit score, failure to repay a credit card will.— Lisa Servon (2017): The Unbanking of America.
“Our proposed “reputation protection” hypothesis is that people do not exhaust their credit card limits because they want to protect their credit scores. A credit score is a statistic computed by credit bureaus to access a person’s default risk.”
“Borrowing or defaulting on credit cards will affect one’s credit score, while payday loan lenders in the U.S. do not report defaults to the traditional credit bureaus!”
Reader, Click here to read this academic report in its entirety.
To be successful as a lender – or in any other entrepreneurial endeavor – you only have to be good at a few things:
· Picking the right business niche
· Raising money
· Hiring good people
· Ability to iterate through your challenges
· Be Bold. Go where others fear to tread.
Let’s get real! Lending money to the masses can be very profitable!
We are rapidly becoming a nation of “haves” and “have not’s.” The average U.S. worker is paid $23/hour. In real terms, $23/hour has the same purchasing power as $6/hour 40 years ago. The result? Staggering household debt! [Yes, I know! Many of you are reading this Course as you sit in Australia, Europe, the Islands, China… It’s the same theme everywhere. The business of lending money.]
80% of the U.S. is living paycheck to paycheck! [CareerBuilder.com] One in three people are subprime borrowers.[<620 Credit Score.]
Two in five U.S. adults do not have access to $400 cash immediately. Not in a bank account, not on a credit card, not under the mattress… They’ve already borrowed from friends, family, their church… Nowhere to turn but to YOU!
What’s this mean to you? OPPORTUNITY!
The team at Trihouse will teach you how to loan money to the masses without getting your ass handed back to you. Yes, for many of you, reading this tomb will be PAINFUL! It’s the price for entry and success.
The loan products discussed here are installment loans, payday loans, signature loans, car title loans, personal cash advances, merchant cash advances, business to business loans… Call them what you may. All of them can be very profitable.
Real-world example?
In California and Texas, we’re charging $15 to $30+ for every 14-day loan we make. [Depends on the state licensing model used or the Native American Tribe we collaborate with.]
That’s a 400%+ annual percentage rate (APR) for a borrower to use our money for two weeks!
We’ve had stores reach $10,000 in loans after only being opened 3 weeks; within a year, $100,000 on a good week and generating $50,000/month in fees.
Online lending?
Sure. Lenders have costs. Payroll costs, utility costs, website costs, merchant processing, rent, legal, taxes… but you get the picture.
A lender’s inventory is MONEY!
It’s not flowers that die on you. It’s not food that rots. It’s MONEY, MOOLAH, COIN, DINERO, SCRATCH, DOLLARS, EUROS… NICE!!
DONE! I’ve established that the business of lending money to the masses can be very profitable!
Raising Money
This is a mindset. It’s about the presentation. Practice getting good at distilling your idea into a bite-sized amount. Get your business launched.
I’m not talking about immediately achieving a huge scale. Just get your loan business open for business and fund a few loans. Storefront, Internet, monoline, combo… just fund a few loans!
Next?
Friends, family, peers, members of your network… will find out what you’re doing.
They will want to learn more.
Don’t be shocked when they say something along the lines of, “I have $20K sitting in the bank earning 1% per year before taxes and inflation. Could you put my money to work in your new business?
Of course, you can! Offer them 6%, 8%, 10%+ per year. You can afford it when you’re grossing 500%+ APR’s on your loan portfolio!
How to Loan Money to the Masses Profitably. A few words about small-dollar lending in today’s environment by Jer Ayles, Partner at Trihouse Consulting. We began our journey as Lenders! We’ve “worked” deep in the weeds. Zero academics here!
PAYDAY LOANS: THE BUSINESS OF LENDING TO THE MASSES
Several industry-sponsored studies have surfaced recently to determine who gets payday loans today. They are interesting but offer few surprises. The studies simply emphasize it’s the same demographic with a twist. Gig Workers are now in the mix. Again, rather obvious.
In a nutshell, THERE IS NO MAGIC to identifying the payday loan demographic. Payday loan borrowers are the 99%. Retail, health workers, service workers, office, administrative, gig…
Here are a few takeaways.
Payday loans are used by people who need CASH FAST and lack other financial options for repairing their car, keeping the lights on, paying for prescriptions, filling the pantry… in other words, unexpected expenses.
So, what’s good about payday loans? Virtually anyone who can breathe & has proof of a regular income and a bank account can gain access to cash when facing a sudden cash crunch.
What’s bad about payday loans? They are not amortized. The payday loan borrower must come up with the loan principal on their next payday.
The majority of payday loan borrowers do not abuse this feature. Say they live in California. They borrow $100. In reality, the payday loan lender advances the borrower $85. two weeks later, on payday, the payday loan borrower returns to the payday loan brick-n-mortar store or the internet portal and pays back the $85 loan principal + $15 fee. No biggie. That’s the legal rate in California for payday loans.
But, of course, there are always borrowers on the margin who abuse this simple transaction. Two weeks go by, the payday loan borrower is still in over their head and they pay the $15 BUT fail to add any $$ towards the original $85 loan principal. This goes on for weeks! Week after week, they pay the $15. Before long, they’ve paid $300/$400+ in $15 increments and still owe the payday loan lender the original $85 loan principal. NOT A HAPPY ENDING.
At some point, the majority of payday loan lenders implement a policy of insisting the payday loan borrower begin adding a minimum of $20/week to the $15 fee in an effort to force the payday loan borrower to pay down the loan principal. It’s simply the right thing to do!
Back to alternatives for solving the emergency financial challenges faced by potential payday loan borrowers; their ONLY alternatives are:
Friends & family [Usually, they’ve already hit up friends & family. not an option + embarrassing]
Their church [Rarely a viable alternative + embarrassing]
Bounce a check and incur a $35 NSF fee [Result is a bank “loan” having a minimum 1800% APR & potential Check System database entry. That results in their NEVER having the ability to participate in the banking system again! BAD!!]
Get a payday loan [Typically a 400% – 600% APR] online or at a Storefront location
Go without lights, car repair… – lose their job [Not a good choice], forgo that prescription [Ugh!], etc.
Go hungry/suck it up
Borrower from their employer
NOTE: Quite frankly, PAYDAY LOAN products are dinosaurs! Virtually all forward-thinking payday loan lenders have evolved to various types of “installment loans, line-of-credit loans, even buy-now-pay-later” [BNPL] forms of payment. [These BNPL financial products are often worse than old school payday loans because consumers OFTEN fail to realize the payments eventually do come due and they simply forgot! The free interest evaporates and the late fees kick in. It gets REAL UGLY fast. But, this issue is another Post.]
Fact #1: The overwhelming majority of payday loan recipients (82%) have full-time jobs. When you add the number of recipients that work part-time or are already retired, that accounts for well over 90% of recipients.
Fact #2: Payday loan borrowers work in sales, office, gig jobs, food service, and healthcare support.
fACT 3: The most common employer of payday loan borrowers is Walmart, followed by Kaiser, Target, Home Depot, major restaurant employers, Uber, and Amazon
Fact 4: The majority of payday loan recipients are employed full time
Fact 5: Payday loan borrowers use payday loans to cover the timing mismatch of having an expense coming in before the paycheck arrives to cover it.
CURO, a publicly traded lender, originates $1 Billion dollars [+/-] in consumer loans every 3 months. They have approximately a 3% market share. What's this mean for you? OPPORTUNITY!
The near-prime will soon be the subprime. Demand for loans of $500 to $5000+ continues to escalate. Opportunities are boundless for lenders.
As a lender, your inventory is MONEY! Not tulips dying. Not bananas rotting. The 99% will ALWAYS need money. Debt is the reality of living in America.
What do we do? We teach entrepreneurs how to lend money to the Masses. We lend money. We offer Courses, consulting, investments, access to our vast network of vendors, lawyers, Instant Bank Verification, payment processors, website designers, and underwriting...
We are 100% focused on the business of lending to the masses! Installment loans, car title loans, payday loans, line of credit loans...
